The neighbour dropped by for a few minutes bearing a couple beers to split so he could check out the terrace. A bottle of wine and we were still talking a couple hours later, mostly about a conversation around life values and how most of the time we aren't living to them. We spend so much of our time worrying about and paying attention to things that don't matter.
It sounds like a depressing conversation, but it was far from it. Instead, it was quite uplifting, as it was nice to hear someone else slowly coming to realise that all these things we have so often thought of as important and spent our attention on, are not that important after all. But if we don't know what we value, how do we know what we are meant to pay attention to?
Attention is our most valuable personal resource.
We can waste it, or we can spend it on what matters to us. Every decision we make should align with our values, right? But, how many of us are actually doing that, and how much is actually a compromise? Or worse, how much of our energy is spent without even knowing what we are spending it on.
Do you value your health?
Do you value your family?
Do you value your freedom?
Are your daily actions aligned?
I feel that after a very long time, mine are aligning more closely than they have in recent memory. Too much of my life has been spent trying to meet expectations of others, leaving me without personal endeavour. A lot of what I have done, brought me no personal joy or value at all. And this was my fault, because I wasn't clear on what I valued in this life. Perhaps it is the curse of being young, but there is no excuse as we mature to still not know what we value.
As I was saying to the neighbour today, it doesn't take too much to keep me content in life. Simple work where I feel like I am accomplishing something useful. Good relationships with family and friends. And enough money where I can maintain a comfortable, simple life with nothing too extravagant. Oh, and the possibility to build value through work, like being able to build through sweat equity.
I value being able to add value.
Sure, there are many other things I value, but at the core, it is pretty simple. So when it comes to making decisions, it is pretty easy to stay aligned these days. This doesn't mean I don't slip, because I still have over forty years of habitual process to overcome, but I am improving. And I think improvement is a decent goal in life, when it is to get better at the things we value.
But that could be the wine talking.
Taraz
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